


The Dream

by MinerL2020



Series: Not Alone [2]
Category: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Genre: Human, Inspirational Speeches, Period-Typical Racism, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-29
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:35:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27770845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MinerL2020/pseuds/MinerL2020
Summary: Just a story of the MLP characters listening to MLK Jr's most famous speech.
Series: Not Alone [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2053593
Kudos: 1





	The Dream

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [To Those Who can Hear Me](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/718867) by Kind of Brony. 



> I own nothing

“Are you sure you have the radio fixed, Twilight?” Spike asked.

“Of course I’m sure, Spike!” Twilight Sparkle, the youngest princess said. “I’ve been working on it for the last three weeks! I’ve replaced every broken part, calibrated every transceiver, and made sure that the crystal filaments are reinforced!”

“Alright, Twi!” Applejack said. “We get the point.”

“Yeah!” Rainbow Dash said. “Skip the technical details! We’re here to listen to alien voices!”

“Yup!” Pinkie said. “I hope we get as lucky as we did last time!”

Twilight glanced around the room. The group that was gathered last time they had listened to this interplanetary radio. Even Princesses Celestia and Luna had taken the time to come.

“Okay,” Twilight said. “Fluttershy, since you found a suitable signal last time, I’ll need your help.” Fluttershy nodded shyly, and walked up as Twilight started to adjust the knobs. For half a minute, the pegasus heard nothing. Then she perked up.

“Stop!” she said. Twilight did so. “A bit to the left.” Twilight responded. And from the radio came a male voice.

_“-ve the pleasure to present to you, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.”_ Cheers and applause rang out, and a few moments later, a powerful new [voice](http://okra.stanford.edu/media/audio/630828000.mp3) came.

_“I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation._

_Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.”_

Everyone in the room gasped. These men called negros were former _slaves?_

_“But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition._

_In a sense we have come to our nation’s capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness._

_It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.’”_

Applause rang out. Celestia looked solemn. It seemed such bigotry had not died with the abolition of slavery. The speaker continued.

_“But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.”_

More applause came. Twilight was amazed at the firm, unwavering belief of the speaker.

_“We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children._

_It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual.”_

The crowd applauded. Absently, Twilight noted that this ‘America’ was a republic that hadn’t quite lived up to its ideals.

_“There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges._

_But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.”_

The people on the speaker’s end of the radio cheered again. Princess Cadance couldn’t help but nod in agreement with the speaker’s assertion.

_“We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny.”_

The last few words of the speaker were almost drowned out by the cheers of the audience. Applejack couldn’t help but smile at the fact that there were people of the oppressor race helping out the oppressed.

_“They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone._

_As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, ‘When will you be satisfied?’ We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities.”_

Shining Armor shook his head in disgust. The people who were supposed to be supporting the law and protecting people were enforcing this unfair system?

_"We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating ‘For Whites Only’. We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream._

_I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive._

_Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair._

_I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream._

_I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’”_

Luna smiled as more cheers came. Clearly, this nation had a good creed, even if it didn’t live up to it.

_“I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood._

_I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice._

_I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character._

_I have a dream today.”_

Rainbow shook her head in disbelief. Race there was defined as skin color? They were lucky to have someone like this Martin Luther King.

_“I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers._

_I have a dream today._

_I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together._

_This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day._

_This will be the day… This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, ‘My country, ‘tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.’_

_And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!_

_Let freedom ring from the snow capped Rockies of Colorado!_

_Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!_

_But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!_

_Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!_

_Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring._

_And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestant and Catholic, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’”_

The loudest cheers of all rang out. Then the radio went quiet.

Rarity dried her eyes with a hankie. “That was _beautiful.”_

“Indeed it was,” Celestia said. “I regret that we cannot help this Dr. King.”

“But why would a doctor be leading something like that?” Pinkie asked.

“Because I don’t think that title means a _medical_ doctor, Pinkie,” Twilight said. “You see, pastors, people who teach religion, can be given honorary doctorates, so they are often introduced as ‘Doctor’. Adding in the several references to this ‘God’, and this Dr. King is likely a minister.”

“But their world must be pretty hard to live in,” Rainbow said. “Segregation by skin color? We don’t even segregate here.”

The room went quiet. “Actually Rainbow Dash,” Rarity began, “yes we do.”

Rainbow looked shocked.

“There are many ponies that believe our species is superior, and refuse service to those who are not ponies. I have seen it several times when I scouted out places to open a new boutique.”

“There are many ways you can help others struggling with this situation,” Luna said. “You can open your stores for them. You can befriend them and let others know they are no different than ponies. You can even join a peaceful protest, like this Dr. King is doing.”

“I hope we manage to change that soon,” Twilight said. “Star Shot and I may have reached a breakthrough in reaching the humans’ planet.”

“Don’t worry, Twilight,” Celestia said. “I know that with you and your friends at the lead, ponies will accept these people.”


End file.
